In the GothamSchools article “Why I want to see More Charter Schools,” Ebony Brown, a parent of three children, argues that charter schools are more successful in providing children with a quality education and that more should be built around the city. She has three children, two of them attending charter schools and the other one in a district school, and says that there are huge discrepancies in teacher-parent communication, staff support and discipline policies between the schools.

Brown says that in the usual public schools, her child does not have a homework folder that contains a list of the weekly assignments students are expected to complete. Brown said she suggested to the teacher to come up with a guideline which allow for parents and teachers to be on the same page. Her suggestion was never followed through. Also, she suggests that her district school does not implement strict behavioral policies, providing an example of when her child was injured by another student but the school failed to take any action, claiming that it was only “playing.”

She says the charter school has a no-nonsense behavior policy and that there is excellent teacher-parent communication. She said the charter school provides parents an update every quarter on the what the teachers plan to teach and gives notices on upcoming events, workshops and conferences. She is concerned about her child’s future in district schools and he is currently on the waiting list among thousands of other children to attend charter school.

In my opinion, although the article was intended to advocate the need for more charter schools to be built, I feel that it just reinforces the case of district parents that their public schools need to be fixed. All schools should receive the same quality education that charter school students get.